This blog features my weekly column called "What's up in the sky". It is published every Saturday in the Ellensburg newspaper, Daily Record (http://www.kvnews.com/). While my postings will be most accurate for Central Washington, readers throughout the northern USA may find something of use.

Friday, January 20, 2017

The Ellensburg WA sky for the week of 1/21/17

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Saturday: Winter
is the best season for finding bright stars. And if you only want to set aside
a few minutes, 10 p.m. tonight just might be the best time because the winter
hexagon is due south. Starting at the bottom, find Sirius, the brightest star
in the night sky, two and a half fists above the south horizon. Going clockwise,
Procyon (6th brightest star visible from Washington state) is about
two and a half fists to the upper left of Sirius. Pollux (12th
brightest) is about two and a half fists above Procyon. Capella (4th
brightest) is about two and a half fists to the upper right of Procyon and
close to straight overhead. Going back to Sirius at the bottom, Rigel (5th
brightest) about two and a half fists to the upper right of Sirius. Aldebaran
(9th brightest) is about three fists above Rigel. Betelgeuse (7th
brightest) is in the center of the hexagon. Adhara (16th brightest)
is a little more than a fist below Sirius and Castor (17th
brightest) is right above Pollux. That’s nine of the 17 brightest stars visible
in the northern United States in one part of the sky.

Sunday: Draco Malfoy makes an appearance in all seven books of the
Harry Potter series. Perhaps you’ve heard of these. But, the constellation
Draco the dragon makes an appearance in the sky every night. It is a
circumpolar constellation as viewed from Ellensburg meaning it never goes below
the horizon. The head of the dragon is one fist above due north at 9:30 p.m.
Eltanin, the brightest star in the constellation, is at the lower left-hand
corner of the trapezoid-shaped head of Draco.

Monday: Venus
is three fists above the southwest horizon at 6 p.m. Mars is less than a fist
to the upper left of Venus.

Tuesday:
About a century ago, the search for “Planet X” was motivated by irregularities
in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. It turned out the “irregularities” were
simply errors but the search for Planet X led to the discovery of Pluto in
1930. One year ago, Caltech astronomers published their hypothesis that
irregularities in the orbits of some small, icy bodies in the outer Solar
System can be explained by the presence of a planet about ten times the mass of
Earth. This planet, nicknamed Planet Nine, orbits the Sun about 20 times
farther out than Planet Eight, better known as Neptune. Astronomers at New
Mexico State University just announced that Planet Nine might be a captured “rogue”
planet, one that used to travel through space but not orbiting a star. For more
information about this rogue planet, go to https://goo.gl/E4YB7b.

Wednesday: Speaking of Rogues, the CWU Department of Philosophy and
Religious Studies is sponsoring a presentation and discussion about the
cultural significance of Star Wars, with a focus on the two most recent movies
including Rogue One. The panelists will discuss religious, ethical, cultural,
and scientific themes. The event is in Black Hall 151 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm on
the CWU campus. Parking is free after 4:30 p.m. in the lots on Chestnut Street,
just north of University Way. Use the campus map for reference http://www.cwu.edu/facility/campus-map.

Thursday: At
6 a.m., Saturn is one fist above the southeast horizon and Jupiter is more than
three fists above the south horizon.

Friday: Let’s review three important sets of three cats. There’s
Josie, Valerie, and Melody of Josie and the Pussycats. Felix, Tom, and
Sylvester from old time cartoons. And, if you want to get away from the
mind-numbing effects of television, there’s Leo the lion, Leo Minor, and Lynx
in the night sky. Leo is by far the most prominent of these three
constellations. Its brightest star called Regulus is nearly four fists above the
east-southeast horizon at 11 p.m. The backwards question mark-shaped head of
Leo is above Regulus and the trapezoid-shaped body is to the left of it. Leo
Minor consists of a few dim stars right above Leo. Pretty wimpy. The long dim
constellation spans from just above Leo Minor to nearly straight overhead. You
and fellow stargazers won’t need to wear a long tail or ears for hats to enjoy
these stellar cats.

The
positional information in this column about stars and planets is typically
accurate for the entire week. For up to date information about the night sky,
go to https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/planner.cfm.